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A Gorge-ous Day

It is hard to convey the beauty of Chautauqua Gorge on a summer day. It really must be experienced first hand… But, of course, I shall try with my photos and words.

We arrived at around 9:30am and the light was greenish gold. There were forests above us, and below us:

Straight overhead, the sky was cloudless and deep blue.

The water was higher than we expected it to be on a summer day. Yesterday’s rain must be the reason. We switched from boots to Tevas and found we had much better traction and could walk right through the creek… The water was refreshing.

Terry brought his fishing pole fitted with a small spinner.

It seemed every pool he tried yieled a fish. Many were small, like the one on the left below. But there was one nice big brown trout, too.

This one could have made a meal! But it was a catch and release kind of day.

Because the woods are pretty, too, we switched back to boots at one point and hiked a trail we call “The High Road”. It climbs a razorback – with cliffs dropping off on both sides – one to the main creek, and one to a feeder creek. At the summit you can no longer see the creek through the canopy. You can still hear the water rushing, though, and the breeze up there was cool and refreshing.

The trail eventually descends back to the creek – further upstream. We put our sandals back on and followed the creek downstream to our beginning point. Along the way, we could not resist sitting in this mini-waterfall. Very refreshing!

I took… way too many pictures… because every which way I turned there was more incredible beauty.